“A Slayer . . .” The Master pondered this possibility. “Have you any proof?”
Luke answered him with a sneer. “Only that she fought me and yet lives.”
“Very nearly proof enough,” the Master conceded. “I can’t remember the last time that happened.”
“Eighteen forty-three.” Luke looked almost embarrassed. “In Madrid. Caught me sleeping.”
The Master gave a vague nod. “She mustn’t be allowed to interfere with the Harvest.”
“I would never let that happen.”
“You needn’t worry. I believe she’ll come to us.” As his two servants looked at him questioningly, the Master added, “We have something that she wants. If she is a Slayer and this boy lives, she’ll try to save him.”
Luke walked over to Jesse. His hideous face split in a macabre smile.
“I thought you nothing more than a meal, boy,” he chuckled. “Congratulations. You’ve just been upgraded to ‘bait.’ ”
* * *
True to the Master’s prediction, Buffy was even at that moment trying to plan a rescue.
“There it is,” Buffy said eagerly.
Willow sat at the computer while everyone else gathered around her. Showing on the screen was a complete map of the city’s electrical tunnels.
“This runs under the graveyard,” Willow explained, pointing to one in particular, but Xander shook his head.
“I don’t see any access.”
“So all the city plans are just open to the public?” Giles asked.
“Uh, well, in a way,” Willow frowned a little sheepishly. “I sort of stumbled onto them when I accidentally . . . decrypted the city council’s security system.”
Xander’s focus remained on the screen. “Someone’s been naughty . . .”
“There’s nothing here,” Buffy sounded disappointed. “This is useless!”
“I think you should ease up on yourself,” Giles consoled her, but Buffy turned on him, obviously distressed.
“You’re the one who told me I wasn’t prepared enough. Understatement. I thought I was on top of it, and then that monster Luke came out of nowhere—”
She broke off abruptly and Xander glanced up at her.
“What?” Xander asked.
But Buffy was remembering the scenes from the past night playing out perfectly in her mind. “He didn’t come out of nowhere,” she said excitedly. “He came from behind me. I was facing the entrance. He came from behind me and he didn’t follow me out.” She looked at the other three faces around her. “The access to the tunnels is in the mausoleum.”
“Are you sure?” Giles straightened.
“The girl must have doubled back with Jesse after I got out,” Buffy went on. “God, I’m so mentally challenged!”
Xander stepped back, ready for action. “So what’s the plan? We saddle up, right?”
“There’s no ‘we,’ ” Buffy corrected him. “I’m the Slayer and you’re not.”
“I knew you were gonna throw that in my face,’ Xander grumbled.
“Xander, this is deeply dangerous.”
“I’m inadequate. That’s fine. I’m less than a man.”
Xander turned his back on her and walked off. With a sympathetic glance in Xander’s direction, Willow appealed to Buffy.
“Buffy, I’m not anxious to go into a dark place full of monsters, but I do want to help. I need to.”
“Then help me,” Giles replied without hesitation. “I’ve been researching this Harvest affair. Seems to be some sort of preordained massacre. Rivers of blood, hell on earth . . . quite charmless. I am fuzzy on the details, however, and it may be that you can wrest some information from that dread machine.”
He paused, glancing from one uncomprehending look to another.
“That was a bit British, wasn’t it?” he admitted, embarrassed.
Buffy smiled. “Welcome to the new world.”
“I want you to go on the Net,” Giles translated.
“Oh!” Willow brightened. “Yeah. Sure. I can do that.”
“Then I’m out of here,” Buffy announced. “If Jesse’s alive, I’ll bring him back.”
Giles stepped forward, his grave expression softening. “Do I have to tell you to be careful?”
Buffy met his eyes for a long moment.
And then she went out.
She headed across the school grounds toward the outer gate. It was standing wide open, but before she could go through, Mr. Flutie suddenly appeared behind her.
“And where do we think we’re going?” Mr. Flutie greeted her.
“We?” Buffy was all innocence. “I? Me?”
Mr. Flutie gave her a patronizing look. “We’re not leaving school grounds, are we?”
“No! I’m just . . . admiring the fence. This is quality fencework.”
“Because if we were leaving school grounds on our second day at a new school after being kicked out of our old school for delinquent behavior—” The principal paused, drawing a breath. “Do you see where I’m going with this?”
Buffy’s mind worked quickly. “Mr. Giles!” she burst out.
“What?”
“He asked me to get a book for him,” Buffy explained. “From the store, ’cause I have a free period and I’m a big reader—did it mention that on my transcripts?”
Mr. Flutie stared at her. “Mr. Giles.”
“Ask him.”
But Mr. Flutie stepped around her, closed the gate, and locked it, fussing the whole time.
“Well, maybe that’s how they do things in Britain; they’ve got that royal family and all kinds of problems. But here at Sunnydale nobody leaves campus while school’s in session. Are we clear?”
Buffy kept her face pleasant. “We’re clear.”
“That’s the Buffy Summers I want in my school. The sensible girl, with her feet on the ground.”
The principal smiled before he turned and walked away.
For a brief moment Buffy gazed down at her feet. Then she took a leap, sailed easily over the fence, and landed nimbly on the other side.
She threw one quick look back over her shoulder.
And then she ran.
* * *
Willow and Xander left the library and went out into the hall. The bell had rung and students were already filing into their classes.
“Murder, death, disaster,” Willow mumbled, making a list in her notebook as they walked. “What else?”
“Paranormal, unexplained.” Xander thought a minute, then asked, “You got natural disasters?”
Willow gave him a nod. “Earthquake, flood . . .”
“Rain of toads.”
“Right.”
“Rain of toads.” Xander’s tone bordered on disbelief. “Are they really gonna have anything like that in the paper?”
“I’ll put it on the search. If it’s in there, it’ll turn up. Anything that’ll lead us to vampires.”
Xander looked grumpy. “And I, meanwhile, will help by standing around like an idiot.”
“Not like an idiot,” Willow soothed him. “Just standing. Buffy doesn’t want you getting hurt.” She cast him a sidelong glance, then added in a much smaller voice, “I don’t want you getting hurt.”
They’d reached Willow’s class. The two of them stood side by side outside the door.
“This is just too much,” Xander sighed. “Yesterday my life is like, ‘Oh, no. Pop quiz.’ Today—rain of toads.”
“I know,” Willow agreed, looking around at all the other students. “And everyone else thinks it’s just a normal day.”
“Nobody knows. It’s like we’ve got this big secret.”
“We do. That’s what a secret is. When you know something other guys don’t.”
Her gentle sarcasm was totally lost on Xander. “Right,” he said. “Well, you better get to class.”
“You mean ‘we.’ ‘We’ should get to class.”
“Yeah.”
“Buffy will be okay,” she reassured him. “Whatever’s down there, I think she can handle it.”
“Yeah, I do, too.”
“So do I.”
But deep in their hearts, neither of them really believed it.